Piercing and nailing mechanism for heel-builders



G. B. GROVER.`

PIEHCINGlAND NAILING MECHANISM FOR HEEL BUILDERS.

APPLICATION FILED AuG.2. I9I9.

Patented Sept. 27, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

y APPLICATION FILED AUG'Z. 1919.

through the hole thus pierced.

vUNITED STATES 'PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE GROVER, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO W. J. YOUNG MACHIN- ERY COMPANY, 0F LYNN, MASS.liCHUSE'lTS,VA A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

lIPIER(."I1\l'Gr AND MAILINGk MECHANISIJI FOR HEEL-BUILDERS.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 27, 1921.

Application filed August 2, 1919. Serial No. 314,946.

To all whom t man] concern: v n

Be it known that I, Gnonen B. Gnovnn, a citizen of the ,United States, residing at Lynn, in' the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Piercing and Nailing Mechanism for Heel-Builders, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to provide means in 'connection with a heel buildin@P machine whereb i a hole for the reception of a nail may iirst be pierced in a heel blank, and then a nail may be driven i It has long been the practice to make heels for boots and shoes by assembling lifts, either whole or pieced, and made of leather, leather boarc or other `suitable material; so assembling them in a machine of the type generally known as a heel building machine, and to drive a nail through the assembled lifts before removing the heel blank thus made from the machine. The nail is driven for the purpose of holding the lifts in place and and properly alined until the paste or.

other adhesive with which the liftsv are coated has become set, or until the heels have been put under pressure in a press. In theuse of such heel building machines difliculty has been experienced in driving the retaining nail straight and in the required location. Itis sometimes a matter of extreme importance that the nail be laced at a certain point, both in order to hold the lifts, and to leaveclear the spaces .in which nails are afterward to be driven when the heel is applied to a shoe. It is likewise important that the nail should be driven straight without either crumpling before entering theheel or bending or ybeing deflected after its entrance. The resistance to penetration by a nail of many of the mai terials used in making heels causes the/nail to be bent or defected in the heel, and-this diliculty is much increased when metal plates are interposed between lifts as is done in some makes of heels. My purpose in producing the present invention has been to overcome such difficulties by the combination with a heel building machine of an awl or equivalent piercing means and a' nail driver, together with means for `operating such awl and nail dri-ver in proper sequence to pierce the heel first and thendrive the nail.

I have heretofore secured patents forheel building machines of the sort previously ref erredL to, that is, those wherein paste coated lifts may be assembled and a nail driven through them. The patents here referred to are No. 749,788 dated January 19, 1904; No. 920,457 dated May 4, 1909; and No. 980,512 dated January 3, 1911. In devel oping the present invention for practical usev I have applied it to the heel buildingr machines of the type shown in said patents and have illustrated it in the drawings fur' mshed herewith as applied to one of such machines. I will state, however, that the present kinvention is not restricted in its use kto aV machine having the specific characteris a plan view of a heel building machine containing my present invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on line 2 2 of Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the table, the awl, its operating means and adjacent structural parts. Fig. 4 is an elevation of the upper part of the machine, a part of the table being shown in vertical section. Figs. 5 and 6 are vertical sectional views on the longitudinal median` plane showing the shifting' mechanism for the awl andnail driver in respectively different positions.

Like reference characters designate the same parts in all the figures.

The table of the heel building machine is designated l1. Mounted on it are side gages 12-12-12-12 each composed of superposed strips and Secured by clamps 13-18, as described by prior patents for the purpose of *centering and alining` the lifts in the process of building up the heel. Rising at the rear of the table is an upright post l4forming a pivot for the hub l5 of an arm 16 carrying a head 17 by which is supported a movable top clamp 18, the latter being pressed down by a cam 19 having an operating handle20, on the completed pile of lifts `which forms a heel to hold such heel whilelthe nail is being driven. -An adjustprior patents and needs no further description.

Beneath the table the frame of the machine is provided with a guide 21 having parallel sides in which there is supported in a slidable manner a holder 22 having chambers or passageways 23, 24, and to which holder is secured a block 25 supporting a driver guide 26 and an awl guide 27. Said driver guide and awl guide pass through a plate 28 which is fitted in the table iiush with the supporting surface thereof and 1s adapted to slide in or on any suitable sort of guideway, whereby to maintain an unbroken supporting surface for the heel and to permit shifting of the driver and awl alternately into the same operating position. The holder 22, block 25, guides 26 and 27 and plate 28 are thus movable as a unit between the limits set by adjustable stop screws 29 and 30 (Figs. 5 and 6) at respectively opposite sides of the holder, screw 29 being set in a tapped hole in the part of the machine below the table and the screw -39 being passed through a cross bar 31 which crosses the forward end of the sidev members forming the guide 21. Both screws are secured in their adjusted position by lock nuts. Fig. 5 shows the awl guide in theoperating position and 6 shows the driver guide in the same position, the stops 29 and 30 being` adjusted to arrest the holder when oneor the other of these guides is accurately placed in such position.

A nail driver 32 is contained in an endwise movable manner in the guide 26 and is secured to a piston or head 33 which h as a sliding iit in the chamber 23 and is guided by the walls thereof. Similarly an awl 34 is contained in the guide 27 and is secured to a head or piston 35 which fits and slides 1n the chamber 24. In the outer side of each of the heads 33 and 35 is an encircling groove arranged to provide a shoulder 36 for engagement with a ret-ractor presently described.

rhe holder 22 is moved back and forth to place irst the awl and then the driver inA the operating position by a mechanism consisting of a bell crank lever pivoted at the fulcrum point 37 on an arm or bracket 38 which is secured in any suitable manner to the machine frame in the proper location. This bell crank lever has two arms, one of which. 39, passes through a hole in a lug 40 projectingl at one side of the holder 22 and the other of which, 41, is attached to a pitman which is moved endwise by a cam 42 on a shaft 43. The lower part of the pitman is widened and slotted at 44 to embrace the shaft 43 and carries on its lower extremity a stud which engages the cam, the latter being a face cam and having a groove in its face which is entered by such stud. In this detail of construction the pitman and its operating means are substantially similar to machine elements commonly used. The pitman is designed to apply force in a yielding manner in both directions to the bell crank lever 39-41, and for that purpose it is constructed of twoy main parts, namely, a rod 46 connected to the lever arm 41 by a forked head 47` and a pivot 48, and a second rod 49 which is screwed into 4the slotted end part of the pitman. Rod 46 carries a head 50 having an apertured offset51 which embraces and slides on the rod 49; while the latter carries a head 52 having a substantially similar apertured lateral projection 53 which embraces Vand slides on the rod 46. Between the, offset 51 and the head 52 is a .spring 54 made as ahelix loosely surrounding rod 49, and between the offset 51 and a collar 55 secured on the rod 49 is a similar spring 56. These springs are adapted to yield in case the driver and awl holder 22 engages either of the limiting stops before the highest point or the lowest point respectively of the cam 42 has passed the stud on the pitman, and thereby is accomplished the result of enabling the limiting stops for the holder to be accurately set so as to obtain exact registry of the awl and the driver in the operating position, without needing extremely accurate workmanship in making the cam, pitman, and bell crank lever, and in locating the fulcrum for the latter; and it further accomplishes the equally important result of permitting the operating position above described to be changed as needed for heels of different styles and types of construction without calling for any other adjustment than simply the adjustment of the stops 29 and 30, and thus without requiring the shifting mechanism to be adjusted or changed in any particular.

The awl and likewise the driverl are driven when in the operating position by a striker 57, which is movable endwise in a passage 58 in the under part' 59 of the guide 2-1 which supports the shiftable holder 22. This striker is connected by a pin 60 with a lever 61 having its fulcrum at 62 on a bracket 63 which hangs down from the machine frame beneath the plane of the table. A link 64 is connected by a pivot 65 to the lever 61 and is driven by a crank 66 on a shaft 67, to apply pressure and then be withdrawn gradually. The cam 42 and crank 66 are geared together in a ratio which causes thecrank to make two revolutions to one revolution of the cam, as required by the operation of the machine wherein the striker isrequired to deliver a blow when the carrier is in each of its extreme positions.

It is obvious from a comparison of Figs. 5 and 6 that when the carrier is in one position the chamber or passage 24 registers with the striker and the latter is then impelled to drive or force the awl throughthe work,

Cit

whereby to open a passage to' be subsequently occupied by a nail; and that when the carrier is in the opposite position the chamber or passage 23 registers with the striker and the latter is then able to impel the driver.

In addition to its driving function the striker also has the function of withdrawing orretracting the awl and driver respectively, and forthis purpose it is provided with a coupling 69 shown-in Fig. 3. This coupling has a hook 70 at one end which isadapted to take hold of the shoulder 36 previously described of either the awl head or'the driver head; and it has likewise a lug 71 and a tailpiece 7 Lug 71 projects at one side of the coupling in to a groove 73 in the striker 57 to which it is connected by a pivot pin 7 et. Thus the coupling while lying at one side of the striker is connected to the latter and is moved back and forth therewith. When in the extremeupper position the upper part of the coupling engages an inclined cam surface 75 on a part of the guide 21 at one side of the carrier, and it is thereby moved to bring its hook 70 over the shoulder 36 of.

whichever one ofthe tools may be in operation (in this description the generic term tools7 is used to designate both the awl and the driver) and when the striker is withdrawn the tailpiece of the coupling engages an oppositely arranged cam surface 76 and is thereby moved in the opposite direction to disengage the hook from the shoulder. The latter cam surface is on a piece 77 secured in any desired way in the proper location to the side-of the guide 21. Both cams are further properly placed to cause engagement of thejhook with the shoulder when the tool is in its eXtreme projected position and to cause disengagement when the tool has been retracted as far as necessary. `The necessary degree of retraction in the case of the awl is that which withdraws its point from the work, and in the case of the driver that which withdraws it an additional amount great enough to insert a nail entirely in the guide `26. Friction may be relied on to prevent the tools from dropping so far as to interfere with the shifting movement of the carrier, or a positive stop may be provided for that purpose so constructed and located as not to interfere with the necessary movement of the striker. For instance, the striker may be longitudinally grooved at one side to clear stops which may project from corresponding points in the chambers 23 and 24.

The motions of the shifting and driving mechanisms just described are preferably given by power means from a belt driven pulley, motor or other source of power through the agency of an automatic start and stop clutch mechanism controlled by the op-1 erator by a suitable treadle orlever. I do not deem it necessary to illustrate such power means and clutch for I may use any of the devices of this sort now used, and I have illustrated such means in my prior patents before specified, which are suitable forthe purpose of this machine; and reference is directed to said prior Vpatents for su'l'licient explanation thereof.

Another feature new in the present machine consists in an ejector for the completed product (namely a cement and nailed collection of lifts, forming a blank heel). This ejector isshown particularly in Figs. 1 and' 4. It comprises two arms or fingers 7 9-80 which normally occupy grooves in the table under the place on which the heel is built, suchV fingers passing'underthe breast gage 81 of the machine and being joined to a sleeve or hub 82 which turns on a fulcrum rod 83, supported above the table by any suitable means. This sleeve is connected with an arm 84 having a cam or wiper surface 85 in position to be engaged and depressed by an arm 86 projecting from the hub l5 of the top clamp carrying head and at the opposite side of such hub from the head. when the top clamp head is moved aside to the position which it normally takes while the heel is being built, and to which it is moved just after the driving of the nail, the arm 86 rides over the cam surface 85 and raises thefingers 79 Vand 8O enough to free the heel from the surface of the table, whereby it may be removed.

In the use of the present improved machine the heel is built upin the usual way and as fully disclosed in my prior patents. the lifts being alined by the breast plate 8l. and thef side gages 12, the top clamp being then swung aside and a nail having previously been placed head downward in the driver guide 26. Then when the heel has been built to the desired height the top clamp is swung forward and pressed down upon it, and the heel piercing Vand* nail driving mechanism is set in operation by movement of the controlling lever or treadle. The awl is then advanced through the work by the striker and immediately retracted, the car rier is shifted to bring the driver in line with the hole thus ypierced in the heel,'and the driver isv then advanced and withdrawn the mechanism is brought l ack to the starting position and theY driving clutch automatically then uncoupled. Preferably the starting position is that in which the awl is operatively placed, but variations from this exact position may be made within wide. limits provided only that the driver is not in the place to be first operated. Then after the driving of the nail the top clamp is released from the heel and swung aside to the. limit of its motion, which is determined by a shoulder 87 on the arm 84 against which the projection 86 strikes; whereby the heel is loosened from the table and may be picked Thus up and removed by the operator or other agency.

It is to be understood, of course, that the descriptive terms used in this specification are to be construed in their broadest sense to include all parts and elements equivalent in function and result commensurate with the novelty of the invention. As an instance of my meaning, I will state that the term awl as here used is intended to cover and protect any form or type of piercing tool which is capable of penetrating heel material when impelled by sufficient force. Evidently the essential principle of the machine may be embodied in various constructions and arrangements of parts differing more or less in appearance from the particular embodiment of the invention here presented for illustration, wherefore I `include within the scope of protection claimed herein all such constructions and arrangements which contain the parts pointed out in the appended claims.

Having thus explained the principles of my invention and the manner in'which the same are to be performed, but without describing all of the possible embodiments thereof or all the modes of its' use, I declare that what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is l. A heel building machine comprising supportingand gaging means arranged to define a space in which lifts may be assembled in position to form a heel, a piercing tool, a nail driver, and guiding means for said tools arranged to guide the latter across one end of said space in such manner that the tools may be placed alternately in a given operative position, whereby the piercing tool may be first actuated to open a passage through the assemblage of lifts and the driver may be subsequently operated to drive a nail into such passage.

2. A heel building machine comprising a support on which lifts may be piled to form a heel, side gages for positioning the lifts so piled, a gnideway extending across the extension of a line passing from top to bottom of the assemblage of lifts, a holder, a piercing tool and a driving tool carried by said holder, said holder being guided by said guide to bring either of said tools into the before mentioned line and the tools being independently movable with respect to the holder` in the general direction of said line.

3. A heel building machine comprising a support on which the lifts to make a heel are assembled, a retainer for holding against displacement therefrom the heel so made, a holder underneath said support carrying a piercing tool, a driving tool, and guides therefor, and being movable to place either of the tools and its guiding means in the same operating position, and a striker maintained in `substantially the same location to apply impelling force to either tool when in the operating position.

4. A heel building machine comprising af table on which lifts may be piled to form a heel, sidegages on said'table for defining the space vin which such lifts are placedand for alining the lifts properly `with one another a clamp arranged over the table to press upon the assemblage of lifts forming a heel, a guideway under the table, a-/holder movable on said guideway, awl and a nail driver carried by said holder, .the guideway being so arranged that the holderis moy,- able so as to place either theLawl ,or the driver in a line eXtend-ingfrom .top to bottom through the space inavhich the lifts lare assembled, and the awland driver" being each independently'movable in said line to-V ward the clamp, and a striker arranged to apply impelling force to.t hefawl landnail driver, respectively. l f n 5. A'heel building 'machine comprising the combination with means adapted `to .support lifts while beingassembled withone` another to forma heel, of gagesy for locating the liftsbeing thusassembled in correctre-` lation to one another, va striker arranged and guidedto 4be movedV ina` lineV which passes from` the location ofthe lifts in aV direction between the top and bottom of .the assemblage, a holder, an awl andv anail driver carried by said holder, and .means for guiding the holder in a .pathbetween the' striker and the assemblagehoflifts whereby each tool is brought alternately .into lineV for actuation bythe striker ,to pierce'the assembled heel and (to drive a: nail through the passageformed by piercing.

6. A heelfbuilding machine having appropriate means for supporting the lifts be'- ing assembled to produce arheel and for positioning and alining the lifts ,so assembled, a striker movable back and forth'in a line which extends through' the assembled rheel from top to bottom, an yawl, a nail driver, and means by which the awl and nail driver may be placed in linel with the striker for operation, in turn, bythe latter first to open a passage through the heel and finally to drive a nail through the passage so opened.

7. A heel building machine comprising a table, side gaging means mounted on said table to position properly lifts placed on the table to form a heel, a top clamp arranged and operable to press toward the table upon a pile of assembled lifts, a striker below the table mounted and movable back and forth in a line toward the top clamp, an awl, a nail driver, and holding and guiding means for the awl and nail driver arranged to permit the awl and nail driver to be operatively placed, in turn, in line with the striker to receive driving impulses therefrom toward the top clamp.

8. In a heel building machine, a table, an

ejector having a linger sunk into the table beneaththe position of building a heel, said ejector having an arm provided with a cam surface, a top clamp movable over and aside from the heel assembling location, and a projection associated with said top clamp arranged to engage said cam surface and raise the ejector when the top clamp is thus moved aside.

9. A heel building machine having a work-supporting table, gages for positioning lifts piled upon said table to form a heel, a holder, an awl and a nail driver mounted side by side in said holder and guided to move endwise therein, the holder being movable in a transverse direction to place either tool in the same position wherein its line of movement extends through the assembled heel across theplanes of the lifts thereof, a striker mounted and guided to move in the path vof the tool which is in said position, and mechanism for automatically shifting the holder as set forth and for operating the striker when each tool is in the position stated.

l0. A heel building machine having a work support, a holder, an awl and a nail driver mounted side .by side in said holder and guided to move lengthwise, the holder being movable in a transverse direction to place either tool in the same operating position, a striker mounted and guided to move in the path of the tool which is in operating position, and a coupling associated with the striker for withdrawing the tool after the` same has been projected, there being means for disengaging the coupling from the tool to permit retraction of the striker and coupling out of interference with the transverse movement of the holder.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

GEORGE B. GROVER. 

